Pez, pogs, coffee, manly hats…

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The NCAA Tournament has started. For the first time in many, many years, I didn’t even fill out a bracket. Just could not get into it this year. Is this the inevitable consequence of your team(s) being irrelevant in March multiple consecutive years? As my son would say, ‘probably.’

There’s also a lot of other stuff going on – soccer season starting up for the kids, school events one after the other, lots of house and yard work… So many excuses. If the Fighting Illini were in – as a projected seed or even a marginal lower tier team, I’d be plotting their upsets and inevitable second weekend appearance, scouring the matchups, figuring out who will advance. Instead, Illinois fans are treated to the third arrest of a player within about three weeks. Not good, Coach, not good at all…

So I guess it’s time to root, root, root for the underdog, look for some hardworking teams to upset the blue bloods, and scout for coaches on the upswing. Games will still be on. We’ll still watch the second weekend and the Final Four closely. Maybe next year.

Sci-Fi network (SyFy?) once had the market cornered on good science fiction TV series. That was before they decided to rely on wrestling and straight-to-video movies to fill their programming slate. These days, everyone from AMC to MTV to the premium channels has some sci-fi or fantasy in their lineup – some good, some not. So it’s nice to see something worth recommending on Sci-Fi/SyFy.

The Expanse, based on the novels by James SA Corey, takes place in a near future in which humanity has expanded into our solar system to colonize Mars and mine the asteroid belt. There’s no faster-than-light travel, and one of the central tenets of the books is a realistic approach to the science and challenges of space travel and survival. Continue reading →

So this isn’t really a review – more of a reaction to the movie. It would be very hard for someone like me to review a Star Wars movie. Just too close and too invested in the SW mythos and all that entails, which is why my reactions and viewing experience are what they are.

Which is to say… Saddened and a bit neurotic. And by the way, spoiler alert – you probably don’t want to read this if you haven’t yet seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

We’ve been busy enough around here the date sort of sneaked in on us, but tonight is Star Wars Night.

Per usual, I’ve remained willfully ignorant of spoilers, advanced reviews, youtubes, and general speculation. That said, positives, man, positives.

Many of the questions about how they’ll use the veteran characters, will the new actors be able to hold up, what direction will Abrams take us… Tonight.

The kids are almost as excited as I am. They are the perfect age for this. So we’re going to go early to wait in line. They may dress up if they’re feeling it… We will check back in with reactions soon!

Weeks like this last one give me some new appreciation for my Mom. Back when me, my brother, and my sister were all in school, we were involved in multiple school activities and events, as well as additional stuff like 4-H and scouts. We were coming and going all the time – many, many trips in town. When I also reflect that she worked a second job through some of those years, well… don’t know how she did it.

She had help, of course – Grandparents, our Aunt and Uncle up the road, and friends’ parents pitched in to get us where we needed to go. Dad was there and involved in the earlier years. It was a solid but busy foundation they all laid down for us.

This week at Beemsville I had a post-work trip to school every night this week. Monday and Friday – basketball games, Tuesday – Winter Band Concert, Wednesday – PTO Meeting, and Thursday – basketball practice. This doesn’t include the wife’s regular trips to pick up from Jazz Band, IMSA (Math and Science Group), and Piano lessons… Also, the Beem family truckster went down this week and is needing some repairs. Suffice to say we couldn’t make this work without our synced google calendars and good friends pitching in.

I guess it’s not surprising I’m already fidgety this morning. Can it really be that I’ll have time to sit around and read today, maybe do some online shopping? Oh, yeah, another basketball game this afternoon for the boy…

We’ve posted before that we don’t really like Black Friday. Too much craziness, too many people compelled to work on a holiday. I noted a few stores were actually advertising that they would not be open at ridiculous hours – good for them.

You can learn a lot about the spirit of Black Friday by watching the excellent Teen Titans Go! This show is a staple in our house – the kids love it, and it consistently makes me and the wife chuckle. The show’s writers are obviously from our peer group, often referencing semi-obscure 80’s and 90’s lore in full Seth MacFarlane mode.

The episode rifs on ‘A Christmas Carol’ as so many fine holiday toons have done before, and really put me in the proper frame of mind to go out and do battle within the halls of retail Friday afternoon.

If you have pre-teen kids, you probably already know about Teen Titans Go!, but if not give it a look. The Black Friday episode aired last week and will certainly be on again.

Sunday: Illinois Basketball v. North Dakota State with the boy (Illini 80-, NDSU-74; nice comeback in the 2nd half). And also basketball practice for the boy.

Monday: Iles Basketball for both kids (girls tied; boys won).

Tuesday: Iles Basketball for Sophie (win)

Wednesday: Gym Basketball for Bruce (loss)

Thursday: Iles Basketball practice

Seven days – and for good measure we’ll throw in a 12-18 hour stomach bug that had both kids hurting, though they each recovered in time for their events. By yesterday, I just wanted to sit on the couch. I enjoyed every one of these events, but I’m not a person who recharges around people. Needed some quiet time. Which is a good thing, because I believe we have something four of the next five days leading up to Thanksgiving…